Dragon Age II (2011)
Dragon Age II is a 2011 role-playing (rpg) video game made by BioWare Edmonton and Electronic Arts.
Hawke arrives in Kirkwall as a refugee with nothing and spends a decade becoming the city's most notorious figure. Dragon Age II tells that story in chapters, framed as a retrospective account by Hawke's companion Varric, which gives the whole game an intimate, almost confessional register. The wheel-based dialogue system lets players define Hawke's personality through choices that build to a single city's crisis rather than a continent-spanning war. Companions become friends or rivals depending on whether they respect Hawke's positions, not just their loyalty.
Quick answers
What is Dragon Age II about?
Hawke arrives in Kirkwall as a refugee with nothing and spends a decade becoming the city's most notorious figure. Dragon Age II tells that story in chapters, framed as a retrospective account by Hawke's companion Varric, which gives the whole game an intimate, almost confessional register. The wheel-based dialogue system lets players define Hawke's personality through choices that build to a single city's crisis rather than a continent-spanning war. Companions become friends or rivals depending on whether they respect Hawke's positions, not just their loyalty.
When was Dragon Age II released?
Dragon Age II was released on 8 March 2011.
Who made Dragon Age II?
Dragon Age II was made by BioWare Edmonton and Electronic Arts.
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Dragon Age II in our writing
- Companion guide: BioWare: Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect and the Art of the Choice
- Companion guide: The CRPG: The Complete Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games
A few thoughts on Dragon Age II
Dragon Age - The Stolen Throne introduces the political culture of Ferelden and Orlais that Hawke navigates in Kirkwall. Dragon Age - Last Flight captures the same morally pressured Grey Warden tone the series favors.
Games about outsiders who claw their way to becoming their city's most notorious name
Hawke starts Dragon Age II as a penniless refugee in Kirkwall and ends it as the city's most talked-about name, all through choices made over a full decade. The Witcher 3, Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA V and San Andreas all hand you that same climb: build a reputation from nothing, one decision at a time.
Epic fantasy sagas that trace years of political fallout, not just one battle
Dragon Age II unfolds as a decade of Kirkwall's politics collapsing around one refugee family, narrated after the fact by someone who lived through it. House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones trace the same slow unraveling of power, while Oathbringer, Wizard and Glass and the Dragon Age novels themselves follow companions and kingdoms across years, not single campaigns.
Prog and metal albums built for a fantasy war saga
Dragon Age II is scored for tension and grandeur in equal measure, a refugee's rise playing out against constant political violence. In the Court of the Crimson King, Painkiller, IX Equilibrium, the Return of the King soundtrack and The Spectre Within all carry that same sweep: dense, theatrical, built for a world on the edge of war.